A Turkish court has ordered that the country’s best-selling opposition newspaper Zaman, one of a handful of remaining outlets critical of the country’s leadership, be placed under the management of government trustees.
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Zaman is closely linked to the Hizmet movement of influential US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.
“Today, we are experiencing a shameful day for media freedom in Turkey”.
In a statement, Zaman said the country was going through its “darkest and gloomiest days in terms of freedom of the press”. “Journalists are now frequenting courts, not their newsrooms”.
A Turkish court has put Zaman newspaper – a vocal critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – under state control.
Turkey’s bestselling daily opposition newspaper that has been critical of the Turkish president has been seized by a court, according to state media, raising fears over the government’s crackdown on journalists and media groups.
In its Friday edition, Zaman complained of intense pressure from the government over the past two years, saying that its staff weren’t allowed to cover state institutions and that the paper was under scrutiny by tax officials.
Erdogan accuses Gulen of conspiring to overthrow the government by building a network of supporters in the judiciary, police and media.
The government has cracked down on the movement since, purging civil servants suspected of ties to it, and businesses have been seized.
Dogan reported that police detained Memduh Boydak, chief executive of furniture-to-cables conglomerate Boydak Holding, as well as the group’s chairman Haci Boydak and two board members.
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Turkey’s state-run news agency says police have detained four senior officials in the central city of Kayseri. Last month, the TV channel IMCTV was taken off air.
